For starters the word "hypericonic de-vise" is a word that O'Gorman himself came up with and is trying to define throughout this book. The purpose of O'Gorman creating this hypericonic de-vise is to be used as a teaching aid to help students learn. In the text O'Gorman states, "...I should stress the point that that I am interested less in hermeneutics (interpretation) than I am in heuretics (invention)" (50). This statement shows that O'Gorman is interested more in creating a new teaching method versus using the teaching methods that are already in place to aid students in learning. This device in aiding students to learn that he created is not a replacement for the traditional ways of teaching, but rather a complement in teaching or shaping in teaching as O'Gorman calls it. "...Just as Ramus's scholarly method had a great influence in shaping a print apparatus that has persisted for five centuries, might it not be possible to invent scholarly methods to shape the digital apparatus" (O'Gorman 50)? This question that O'Gorman asks of how the traditional scholarly ways of teaching can shape the digital or new media apparatus is pretty straightfoward. At the same time however I believe O'Gorman is also asking how can the digital or new media apparatus shape the traditional ways of teaching.
The example used in the text about students re-writing William Blake's piece 'Nurse's Song' is a perfect example of the question I think O'Gorman is also asking about a new media tool to shape the traditional teaching apparatus. Blake's 'Nurse's Song' is a piece of art work that contains text in the image to help explain the meaning behind the potrait. In the exericise of re-writing Blake's piece, the text was removed with editing software and posted on the Web with only the image shown to the students. The students were then ask to write about what was happening in the piece based soley on the images alone. None of the students responses matched with what was going on in the picture. O'Gorman sees the results of this exercise as, "...an indication that new media, when used for something other than archival purposes, may serve as a means of rousing ourselves from the 'Single vision & Newtons sleep' in which print technology has steeped us" (66). This statement basically means that using new media as a tool to shape the learning apparatus can open up our minds up to new ideas. Versus the use of print alone which may have only one interpretation. Basically what you read, is what it means and their is no room to come up with any new ideas.
"By creating exercises such as 'Re-writing Blake,' instructors are not asking students to write about the poet/painter; they are asking students to write with him"(66). In my opinion, the definition of "hypericonic de-vise" is simply a device to help us to question and invent ideas. Whether it's for traditional scholarly methods shaping the digital apparatus or the digital apparatus shaping the traditional scholarly methods. Either way the purpose of the hypericonic de-vise is to make us think of or create more than one possible outcome for a concept. During a discussion in class last week someone made the comment, I believe it was Casey, that the notion of "thinking outside the box" rather than looked down upon, should be embraced. I think this is precisely what O'Gorman wants us to get from his hypericonic de-vise.
Works Cited
O'Gorman, Marcel. " The Hypericonic De-Vise: Peter Ramus Meets William Blake." E-Crit: Digital Media, Critical Theory, and The Humanities. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incoporated, 2006. 50 & 66.
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You could omit the entire first ¶. In fact, watch wordiness throughout. Look up the correct use of ellipses in quoting.
Otherwise, a strong summary.
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